Stanley Matthews

“ When the commissioners have proceeded to divide a square with a a city proprietor, whether water or other property, they have executed all the powers vested in them to act upon the subject. It appertains to the several courts of the state and the United states to determine upon the rights which such division may give. ”

“ The 'full property in the shares of Potowmack river,' spoken of in the compact, if it is not to be taken as a seizin of the land covered with water, but a right of occupation merely, properly termed a franchise, as said by HOSMER, C.J., in East Haven v. Hemingway, 7 Conn. 186-202, must be appurtenant to the land, the conveyance of which carries it as an incident; otherwise, if it implies an ownership in the soil of the shore, between high and low water mark, as land, it could not pass as an appurtenance by a deed conveying the adjoining land; for land cannot be appurtenant to land. ”

“ What effect upon the riparian rights of Notley Young would have resulted from the creation of a perpetual easement for a public way over Water street by a grant to the United States to that use alone, the title and right of possession in the soil for all other purposes remaining in the original proprietor, it is unnecessary to discuss. ”

“ It can hardly be possible that the establishment of the city upon the plan adopted, including the highway on the river bank, could have left the right of establishing public wharves, so essential to a great center of population and wealth, a matter altogether of private ownership; for, even as to squares and lots that fell to the public on the division, it is equally contended by the appellants that those from whom they claim, with the lots also purchased the public riparian right appurtenant there o, with power to convert it to private use. ”

“ One of the practical difficulties experienced in the matter of building wharves arose from the fact that conflicts between private claimants, and with acknowledged public rights at the termination of streets upon the river, would exist if the wharf rights were extended to the channel between lines prolonged from the sides of the lots. ”

“ In a letter to the president, explaining their regulations of July 20, 1795, the commissioners distinctly say 'that no wharves, except by the public, can be erected on the waters opposite the public appropriations, or on the streets at right angles with the water;' and that it is 'proprietors of property lying on the water' that are to be permitted to build wharves. ”

“ And in Maine it was decided that a grantee, bounded by high-water mark, is not a riparian proprietor, nor within the ordinance. Lapish v. Bangor, 8 Greenl. 85. In New Jersey it is spoken of as 'the right of an owner of lands upon tide-waters to maintain his adjacency to it and to profit by this advantage,' (Stevenson v. Paterson, etc., R. Co. 34 N. J. Law, 532-556,) and as a right 'in the riparian owner to preserve and improve the connection of his property with the navigable water.' Keyport Case, 3 C. E. Green, 516. ”

“ They say:
'Squares in the water with water lots were laid ff by the commissioners and divided with the proprietors on the navigable waters of the Eastern Branch, Potomac, and Rock creek. Water lots were defined by metes and bounds on three sides, and were estimated originally in the division, since in sales, and now for assessment by the front foot. * * * On the plan of the city all the streets are delineated and all the property laid off. Every owner of a lot in the city can tell by the description of it in his deed what are its bounds on all sides ”

“ Accordingly, on October 3, 1796, the president requested Beall and Gantt to convey all the unconveyed residue of the land granted by Notley Young to Scott, Thornton, and White, then commissioners, appointed under the act of July 16, 1790, 'in fee-simple, subject to the trusts yet remaining to be executed;' and on November 30, 1976, Beall and Gantt accordingly conveyed by deed in fee-simple to the commissioners last named. In the mean time, however, the plan of the city had been adopted and promulgated, on maps of which were laid out the squares, lots, public grounds, and streets ”

“ The riparian right 'is the result of that full dominion which every one has over his own land, by which he is authorized to keep all others from coming upon it except upon his his own terms.' Rowan's Ex'rs v. ”

“ In that communication he attributed the doubt and uncertainty in which the matter was involved to the action of the commissioners. 'In laying off the city,' he says, 'they stopped, as before observed, on the bank of the river, sold the lots on the high ground with a water privilege, without defining either what the privilege is, or the extent or direction in which the purchasers were to wharf and improve.'
3. A special ground is maintained in behalf of the claim under lot 13, in square 504, derived from Greenleaf. ”

“ On October 18, 1794, as has been stated, the commissioners transferred to Greenleaf, Morris consenting, by certificate, 857 of these lots, including the one in question, and it may be that many of them were water lots, but which of them were is to be determined by the actual facts as to each, and not by any general description. ”

“ Lecraw, 17 How. 426. 'A man cannot lose the title to his lands,' it is said in this case, 'by leaving them in their natural state without improvement, or forfeit them by non-user.' Page 436; McMurray v. Baltimore, 54 Md. 103.
This denies no right that can be claimed by virtue of the compact between Virginia and Maryland of 1785, for that secured to their citizens 'the privilege of making and carrying out wharves,' as to the shores of the Potomac only, so far as they were 'adjoining their lands,' and such had always been the law in Maryland, notwithstanding the language of the act of 1745, c. ”